Super Bowl hot spots for '05

When the St. Louis Rams clinched a play-off spot on Jan. 2 with a dramatic field goal in overtime, Buffalo Wild Wings in Cape Girardeau became an instant party.

Fans danced, whooped and hollered. They tossed confetti in the air and complete strangers gave each other hysterical high-fives.

"It was a riot," said owner Bill Zellmer. "It was like that when the Cardinals got to the World Series, too."

The scene is the backdrop of an interesting development -- the absolute necessity in the restaurant and bar business of catering to sports fans.

There are more sports bars in Southeast Missouri than ever before, owned by people who know that fans of the Rams, Cardinals and Blues and local teams will flock with their friends to their establishments year-round to sink tons of cash to eat and drink for hours while watching whatever game happens to be on the tube.

It's more than sports bars, though. Even family-style restaurants like Applebee's, TGI Fridays and O'Charley's include sports memorabilia and several television sets that are locked onto sports channels.

Dr. Charles Wiles, director of athletic marketing at Southeast Missouri State University, said he's not surprised that sports-themed establishments -- most recently Krieger's in November -- are becoming more popular.

"It's all about demographics," said Wiles, who also was a marketing professor for 30 years. "You want the male 21 to 49 or even 21 to 69, you need to include sports somehow. You want them buying food or buying adult beverages, you've got to have sports for them to watch or they won't even come in."

Zellmer agrees.

"It's just the atmosphere and the attitude," he said. "Basically it's something to look at and do while you're dining. Sports games last 2, 3, 4 hours. They want to keep you here."

Buffalo Wild Wings, for example, has 70 -- 70! -- 27-inch televisions, six 133-inch projection screens and one 50-inch plasma screen.

Krieger's managing partner Justin Barnes said that Krieger's likes to consider itself a family restaurant as opposed to a "sports pub." But he said that probably 30 percent of their profits come from sports fans. Krieger's has 27 televisions.

Nick's Family Sports Pub also wants to appeal to families and doesn't want people to think it's full of drunken sports fans. Co-owner Darren Tockstein said they decorate their walls with local team jerseys and memorabilia.

He said that the sports side isn't as important as it used to be with more home entertainment centers and their big-screen TVs keeping people at home.

"For us, sports is about building an atmosphere," he said. "But we always have the games on. But we consider us a restaurant with sports themes. How do you get families into a sports pub? They have to come in and see what we're all about."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137